DIY video – How to paint a mountain mural wall for a child’s nursery

If you’ve got a little one on the way and want to decorate their nursery in a creative and non-gender specific way, why not try this mountain wall mural? It’s a project that you can complete in a weekend – which includes drying time – and gives you an impressive feature wall in your child’s bedroom.

This nursery transformation was created by my best friend while she was expecting her first child and I’m so pleased that she captured the whole process on camera. This is one of the most creative (and exceptionally Pinnable!) baby rooms I’ve ever seen. In fact, I’d quite like to create a mural like this in my own bedroom! Here’s how she did it:

FINISHING TOUCHES

INSPIRATION AND DESIGN

The most common question friends, family and strangers asked whilst I was pregnant was ‘are you having a boy or a girl?’ We chose to wait until the big day to find out. So our baby’s nursery needed a gender neutral theme. Something that would provide an inspiring and stimulating space for our little one and also represent us and our interests as a family.e’ve always loved hiking and exploring both at home and further afield, and a sense of adventure is something we want to instil in our little one. Iceland is one of mine and hubby’s favourite places – everywhere you look is a photographer’s dream with magical mountains, frozen glaciers, huge waterfalls, icebergs and more.Flicking through the album from our trip, I decided to merge a couple of our favourite places into one wall mural. I sketched out the jagged mountains in the Golden Circle for the background and the curvy, hilly outline of the Svínafellsjökull glacier. The latter – for all you Game of Thrones fans – was used as the snowy location of ‘beyond the Wall’.​

PREPARING THE WALL

Our spare room was really grotty, unloved and in desperate need of a good coat of paint. There was damp on the walls caused by condensation, so we gave the walls a good clean with warm soapy water, followed by scrubbing any remaining mould off with bleach. We then spent a day applying two coats of Leyland Trade Vinyl Matt Emulsion Paint in Brilliant White, so we had a nice crisp white wall ready for our creation.

PAINTING THE MURAL

At the time of creating the mural I was 38 weeks pregnant so I needed to be super-speedy, just in case our little one decided to make an early appearance..!

I made sure I was comfy in my sheepskin slippers – not normally a decorator’s choice of footwear, I know! With my sketch in my left hand and my trusty pencil in the right, I started to draw the design onto the wall. I wasn’t worried about being too precise, as mountains come in all shapes and sizes. Plus, if I went terribly wrong I could always rub it out and start again, which I had to do with my first attempt.One thing I could not rush was ensuring a crisp, straight painted outline for the mountains. For this I needed a good painter’s masking tape. Looking at online forums and speaking to decorators, I opted for Delicate Frog tape, as I could peel it off within 24 hours of having painted over it and it wouldn’t take any paint with it.

TIME TO GET PAINTING

Armed with a not-so-steady hand I painted the snowy caps of the mountain freehand. Had I not had an imminent arrival I would have also masked off the snowy mountain caps. But, as I was short of time, I decided that if I made an error then I could paint over it later. ​Next up was filling in the grey outline of the mountains. I started off going freehand to fill out the outline of the rolling glacier, before stealthy using a bigger brush to paint the white gaps inbetween.Day 2 arrived and out came more Frog tape to mask off the skirting board and sides of the wall. Then I got to work painting the final section of the wall at the bottom, the purple of the glacier, whilst sitting on my pregnancy ball. I highly recommend it – whether you are pregnant of not – as it’s far more comfortable than kneeling.This purple paint was a bit patchy in places, so it needed a second coat. I left it to dry for a few hours before returning to do the second layer.

THE FINISHED MURAL

To make it seem even more like the great outdoors, we invested in some woodland animal stickers to go on the walls from notonthehighstreet.com. These were great as they are so easy to unpeel and reposition over and over again. Now our little one is able to sit, she loves being able to touch the stickers.We didn’t buy a cot initially as we bought a Finnish baby box. These are given free to all parents-to-be in Finland, as well as in Scotland and some parts of the UK now. They contain items that you need the first year of your baby’s life including clothing, personal care items (such as a baby tooth brush) sleeping bags, snowsuits – even a baby balaclava! In a future post, I’ll share with you more pictures of the the whole nursery – furniture, toys and all the finishing touches.

TOP TIPS

Don’t leave it until you’re 38 weeks pregnant to paint the nursery! Although it was very good exercise and I thoroughly recommend wearing your slippers to decorate in.

Sketch out your design on paper before you draw it on the wall.

Invest in a good painter’s masking tape to ensure you get crisp lines when you peel off the tape and don’t take any of your creation with you.

Cassie is a freelance writer with a Masters degree in lifestyle
promotion studies. She loves to 'get the look for less' so regularly shares thrifty fashion posts, DIY interior design ideas and low-cost recipes on her blog.

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